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Vaccinations in rural areas falling behind urban areas in Kansas and Missouri, CDC finds

Urban counties in Kansas and Missouri are running ahead of rural counties in vaccinating residents against the coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found in a new study published Tuesday.

Vaccine hesitancy in rural communities remains a “major barrier” for public health officials, according to the CDC study.

In Kansas, 41.3% of adults in rural counties had received at least one dose as of April 10, compared with 49.7% of adults in urban areas. In Missouri, 31% of adults in rural counties had received at least one dose as of April 10, compared with 41.3% of adults in urban areas.

The agency examined county-level vaccination data across all 50 states from December through early April, finding nationally that 38.9% of residents in rural counties had received at least one vaccine dose, compared with 45.7% in urban counties.

Rural residents were also more likely to have traveled outside of their county to get a vaccine dose.

“This was true for counties across the country, across all age groups, and among men and women,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told reporters.

The data also showed that women were taking the vaccine at higher rates than men, both in rural and in urban areas.

More than 1.7 million people in Kansas and 2.4 million people in Missouri have received at least one dose. About 40 percent of both states’ residents are at least partially vaccinated.

The Biden administration has shifted its response to the pandemic in recent days as more Americans have gotten vaccinated. Last week, the CDC issued dramatic new guidance informing fully vaccinated people that they are protected against the coronavirus without having to wear masks, both indoors and out.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly quickly signaled her state would follow the updated guidance. Like Missouri, the state didn’t currently have a statewide mask order, but nearly all remaining cities and counties with mandates have since dropped them.

Only Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, and Douglas County, home of Lawrence, still have mandates. Douglas County leaders are expected to re-evaluate their order on Wednesday.

Kelly said her administration decided to follow the experts on masks.

“This is what these people do for a living, they have for years and years -- decades,” Kelly told reporters Monday. “I really didn’t have any hesitancy. I would have preferred a little longer heads up — runway — to be able to get the information out. But it is what it is. It’s out there now.”

Health experts are stressing the new guidance only applies to vaccinated people, amid concerns vaccinated and unvaccinated people alike will begin shedding their masks.

“You are very likely to transmit the virus, get the virus … and to injure others,” Steve Stites, chief medical officer at the University of Kansas Health System, said of unvaccinated individuals.

With vaccine rates consistently lower in rural communities, the Biden administration has begun boosting federal resources to these areas in an effort to increase uptake. A Biden administration official told reporters Tuesday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was turning its focus to smaller communities after initially setting up mass vaccination sites in large urban areas.

“Vaccine hesitancy in rural areas is a major barrier that public health practitioners, health care providers, and local partners need to address to achieve vaccination equity,” the CDC report concluded. “Disparities in COVID-19 vaccination between urban and rural communities can hinder progress toward ending the pandemic.”

Dr. Julie Swann, head of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University and an adviser to the CDC during its response to the H1N1 pandemic in 2009, said the new data tracks with other surveys on vaccine hesitancy, and with longstanding resistance to mask wearing throughout the pandemic.

“This does confirm what we have seen from individual states that have put data out, that in general, the vaccination rate has been higher in urban areas than in rural,” Swann said. “Similarly, when we’ve seen hesitancy around masks, it’s rarely been in urban areas.”

The Star’s Katie Bernard contributed reporting